MovieChat Forums > Saving Grace (2007) Discussion > Series finale - WTF?? (spoilers)

Series finale - WTF?? (spoilers)

posted 14 years ago by professorchaos_54
17 replies | jump to latest

So most of the series is this theological debate between Grace and Earl. Grace's position is the standard "how can a loving God let bad things happen, etc, etc". For three years, Earl keeps telling her how much God loves her and she should turn her life over to Him, etc etc.

Keep in mind that Grace has a good reason for feeling the way she does, having been a victim of the random sh***iness of life (being repeatedly raped by a priest, starting when she was 9). Despite this rather lousy start and a life filled with pain and self-loathing, she managed to keep her core goodness (not many can say that).

So finally, after three years of being told how much God loves her, and has big plans for her, she finally turns her life over to God. And his big plan is for her to be a martyr.

But at least there's some indication that she's made it to heaven, in a better place, something right? Something like Magnum PI when he was walking among the clouds into the light. Nope. They pull her charred corpse out of a hole, throw in plastic bag, then toss it in the old meat wagon.

Earl held Father Patrick Murphy in his arms and cried when that creepy old pedophile died. All Grace gets is some dopey "that's too bad" look, then the credits.

Very unfulfilling end. Almost seems like in the debate into God's nature, its Grace 1, Earl 0

[–] Journeyman1991 14 years ago

You're 100% right! I agree, for the most part.

But, after reviewing that series finale three more times, I came to the conclusion that something big was about to happen on Earl's part, just as the episode closed. That "look" at the end was the thing that I truly felt left things ambiguous.

Example: For the first time ever, Earl told Grace that he loved her (something which I took as Grace meaning more to him than any of his other charges from the past) at the beach before she went to confront Flanders, and then - once again - there was that "look" at the end of the episode.

I took that "look" to be something much deeper than what it might've looked like at face value. Maybe because he loved her so much and couldn't bare to exist without her, he might've been planning on ressurecting her somehow, even contrary to God's plan, because of his love for Grace.

Also, for the sake of conversation, what if God's plan wasn't for Grace to truly die in that explosion, but rather, just go through with sacrificing herself to prove that she was truly saved, at which point she would've woken up three years ago to re-live/re-do all of the things that we saw since the Pilot episode?

To put it simpler....

Example #2: What if God's plan wasn't really for Grace to die, but to sacrifice herself to see how much she would give up to stop Oklahoma from being attacked again, and to test how much faith she'd put in his hands.

All of these things lead me to the conclusion that we never really saw the "ending" of Saving Grace.... like Earl said in 3x18 to Grace: "You don't know the whole story yet."

[–] one800frank 14 years ago

Such a stupid ending. I can't believe I watched that entire series. You mean to tell me that Hut guy stole this ammonium nitrate in Baltimore to bring to OKC to do another attack? So Grace blows herself up to prevent this attack? So stupid. What is the point for her to be a martyr? Who knew what was really going on other than her? It was so pointless. This Hut guy didn't die. Come on now. He's like a devil or an evil angel. He can't die, so why does Grace think she's doing any damage to him? Its not like this guy can't get more of the combustible stuff somewhere else.
And Hamm throwing the ring at the end was such a bad "last shot" for a finale.

I feel like the only one who had any sort of real reaction was Butch. Bobby looked like he was in the middle of another one of his hijinks during the aftermath. Kate looked stupid doing that salute.

Such a crap ending.

I guess Grace is gonna come back as Kate's daughter, aye?

[–] JudeDeveraux 14 years ago

You really didn't get the show did you or the ending.

They were all saluting Grace because she was a HERO who prevented another Murrah style attack on Oklahoma. Hut was pure evil & he did die along with Grace or at least that is supposed to be the premise.
They had to wrap it up this way because the show was cancelled...a year ago & they had to finish up the storyline but not to make it lame as you think they did. Grace couldn't go on forever...she wasn't supposed to. Earl was her last chance Angel. She helped Leon but lost Neely....

[–] RhiaAki1185 14 years ago

Does no one understand theology? Its not about Grace dying, its about Grace being willing to sacrifice herself. Its not the explosion that destoyed the darkness, it was the selflessness. It was a sad but appropriate ending. What else was going to happen? What else would have been satisfying?

[–] professorchaos_54 14 years ago

Thank you both for the condescension. However, I understand both the show AND theology (I'm very multi-talented).

1) I realize WHY everybody was saluting. That wasn't my complaint with the ending. My complaint was that it seemed to contradict the entire tone of the rest of the series. The essence of Grace's argument against God was that he was uncaring and/or manipulative, basically a "I'll never worship a God that would allow _________ to happen." Earl spends the entire series trying to convince her she's wrong. In the end, God's entire plan for her was to have her go through a life of pain and misery (albeit with some happy moments), only to have her die when she finally gets her s**t together. Also, as I mentioned before, there was no indication that she went to a better place, or an afterlife or anything like that. They merely tossed her scorched carcass into a meatwagon and that was the end of it.

2) Just because Earl was her last chance angel didn't mean she was in the express lane to meet the Reaper. Only Leon had a unbreakable date with Death. Neely died of a drug overdose, which she presumably wouldn't have done if Earl had been successful (she was only his 18th failure). Additionally, there was that rancher's husband who knew Earl who didn't seem to be in any peril. The "last chance" referred more to the person's path rather than any temporal limitation.

3) Grace was already selfless, albeit in a screwed up kind of way. a) She took a major beating in order to get the Parole officer's killer. b) She dove off a twelve story building trying to prevent Neely from jumping. c) Look at the extent she was willing to go to save Rhetta's farm in their conversation in the stairwell. d) She made a promise to Rhetta to stop sleeping with married men and actually kept it. e) Rhetta actually told a nun in the first season something along the lines of "she loves everyone around her more than herself."

4)Nothing wrong with martyrdom or the main character dying as long as it's for a reason. Some good examples, not including historical or true stories, are:

American Beauty

Death of a Salesman

Armageddon (not a good movie granted, but Bruce Willis dying didn't offend the rest of the script)

Sin City (Bruce Willis and Micky Rourke)

Saving Private Ryan

The Professional

Phenomenon

Fallen

[–] 14 years ago

[deleted]

[–] professorchaos_54 14 years ago

Tompkins -

You are one of what I call the "Pompous A**" generation.

From two postings, you think you managed to summize not only my age and intelligence, but also my spirtuality. Sadly, you failed on all three.

It's okay if all the loose ends aren't wrapped up in a neat little bow, but there should be some closure, and that closure should somewhat follow the tone of the rest of the work. The whole tone of the series seemed to be a positive take on religion and God and faith. The ending of the series did not convey that.

FYI - Christians, at whom I believe your anti-God swipe was aimed at, actually believe that God is much older than 2000 years old. Even Fundamentalists believe that the Earth is 6000 years old, and God existed before that.

It's okay that you're pompous. And it's okay that you're ignorant. But the two of those go together like cookies and @ss. Either get some humility or some education.

[–] JudeDeveraux 14 years ago

WTF crawled up your butt and died? You need to get your head out of your @$$ & re-read tompkins post moron!!! He/she was not being the pompous jack@ss you just came off as.

It was a nice post...not directed at YOU but in general to everybody who watches the show.

He/she just said how ppl like to see a series ending finale to be tied up in a neat little bow because we invested so much in the show & when it goes in a different direction of how we expected in throws us in a tizzy....which in this case is good. It still has us talking about the show.

Now get off your high horse & stfu! You have no business to act like king of the world when you've only posted here once with this thread!!!

[–] professorchaos_54 14 years ago

So, how many times do I have to post on this thread before I'm entitled to an opinion?

[–] JudeDeveraux 14 years ago

Entitled? Who are you? The Queen of England?

With your condescending attitude you're not entitled anything.
You don't respect anybody else so why should you be entitled respect?

[–] rasberry_blossom 14 years ago

So glad I saw this post, now I don't have to watch the very last episode at all.

I wasn't expecting a happily ever after ending, no where near, but Grace and the other main characters still being around by the end credits was definitely expected though.

Kind of annoyed they took the "martyr" ending. Deep? Maybe, but sad as anything.

[–] professorchaos_54 14 years ago

Great googely-moogely.

I didn't state that I was entitled to a Mercedes or a Malibu beach house. I basically stated that I was entitled to an opinion, and to voice those opinions, without some arbitrary minimum time limit or post quota on the IMDB message board. The right to free expression is one of the cornerstones of a free society. That's why the framers of the American Constitution chose to make it the 1st Amendment, rather that one of the later ones.

Apparently, you don't realize that. But without that protection, you (or your namesake if you're not THAT Jude Deveraux) would not be able to bilk millions of lonely housewives out of their money by spewing out that simplistic, saccharine garbage that you choose to call "romance novels".

Maybe it's because you're from Kentucky. Maybe it's because you're French. (I know, it's only by marriage, by Frenchism is contagious). Either way, you're either a facist or a moron, possibly both.

[–] Pixanaut 14 years ago

Does no one understand theology? Its not about Grace dying, its about Grace being willing to sacrifice herself. Its not the explosion that destoyed the darkness, it was the selflessness. It was a sad but appropriate ending. What else was going to happen? What else would have been satisfying?

I'm not sure I buy the purity of the whole sacrifice angle because she didn't nuke the place until he showed her the necklace and said he "closed her eyes"... After those two things, the cigar toss feels more like revenge on her part than selflessness.

[–] rasberry_blossom 13 years ago

I don't think people were expecting for Grace to turn out perfect, and be a full on christian who prayed every second of the day, just that she would still be around.

To party another day.

[–] trilbynhiss 13 years ago

@Pixanaut...

That's how I saw it as well, kind of an FU/finger flip to the devil. A base emotion that he would have fed on, not been destroyed by.

I agree with the other posters that said the series seemed to lose focus once Cooley was killed off. Neely didn't interest me in the slightest.

[–] porkchop-sammich 13 years ago

The whole point of the ending is that she became a Saint. Remember when her brother said that he had a dream that she was a Saint? At the end of the finale she was eligible to be canonized as a Saint since she martyr herself and she performed 2 miracles, surviving the fall from the roof and the burning of the storage place to save everybody without any of bags of letters she received being burned.

[–] UTmidge 13 years ago

tcorbert-- thank you. Your summation of the ending makes the best sense to me. I just watched the entire series on streaming Netflix and it was like a book I couldn't put down, I just had to know where they were going with Grace's story. However, I was stunned and a little disappointed with the ending so I've been mulling it over the past couple of days. I thought I might find some kind of closure here on the message boards and your post really helped me find that closure. Thanks again. :)